The role of attention to the mouth of talking faces for vocabulary skills during toddlerhood: Does language familiarity still matter?

This study investigated the language expertise hypothesis on mouth-looking in toddlerhood and explored potential culture and sex effects. Polish and Norwegian 18- and-24-month-olds (N = 101; 44.55% females; data collected 2022-2024) viewed a speaker telling a story in familiar and unfamiliar languages. Toddlers showed more mouth-than-eyes looking across age groups, suggesting more mouth interest. They also showed greater mouth-looking in familiar languages, indicating language familiarity effects. Toddlers with larger vocabularies showed more mouth-looking in unfamiliar languages, possibly seeking helpful phonological-visual cues. These data show that mouth-looking continues supporting language development in toddlerhood in ways related to prior language experience. Exploratory analyses showed important differences in language acquisition and mouth-looking by language or culture and sex; potential mechanisms for such effects are discussed.

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Publication Details

Journal
Child Development
Published
2026-01-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag010
Primary Topic
Categorization, perception, and language
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

The role of attention to the mouth of talking faces for vocabulary skills during toddlerhood: Does language familiarity still matter?

Ewa Haman, Anna Duszyk-Bogorodzka, Magdalena Szmytke, Itziar Lozano et al.
Child Development
Categorization, perception, and language
article

The role of attention to the mouth of talking faces for vocabulary skills during toddlerhood: Does language familiarity still matter?

Ewa Haman, Anna Duszyk-Bogorodzka, Magdalena Szmytke, Itziar Lozano, Nina Gram Garmann, Przemysław Tomalski, Zuzanna Laudańska, Lisa L. Laumann, Agnieszka Dynak, Cecilie Rummelhoff, Karolina Krupa-Gaweł, Natalia Falkiewicz, Wiktoria Ogonowska, Ewelina Fryzowska, Ingeborg Sophie Ribu
article en

Abstract

This study investigated the language expertise hypothesis on mouth-looking in toddlerhood and explored potential culture and sex effects. Polish and Norwegian 18- and-24-month-olds (N = 101; 44.55% females; data collected 2022-2024) viewed a speaker telling a story in familiar and unfamiliar languages. Toddlers showed more mouth-than-eyes looking across age groups, suggesting more mouth interest. They also showed greater mouth-looking in familiar languages, indicating language familiarity effects. Toddlers with larger vocabularies showed more mouth-looking in unfamiliar languages, possibly seeking helpful phonological-visual cues. These data show that mouth-looking continues supporting language development in toddlerhood in ways related to prior language experience. Exploratory analyses showed important differences in language acquisition and mouth-looking by language or culture and sex; potential mechanisms for such effects are discussed.

Child Development
OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University (NO), University of Oslo (NO), Heidelberg University (DE), University Hospital Heidelberg (DE), Nicolaus Copernicus University (PL), Uniwersytet SWPS (PL), Institute of Psychology (PL), Metropolitan University (BD), Cognitive Research (United States) (US), Universidad Metropolitana (PR), Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 38%
Categorization, perception, and language
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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